Kenya Power says it is open to competition amid plan to open market to IPPs

Kenya Power engineers repair power lines in Kisii town on Sept 18, 2023. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Kenya Power now says it has no qualms with independent power producers selling electricity directly to consumers even as it raises concern about the stability of the country’s supply infrastructure.

The utility firm, which currently enjoys the monopoly of power distribution in the country, is expected to face stiff competition from electricity producers, who will soon be allowed to sell power to consumers through the Energy (Electricity Market, Bulk Supply and Open Access) Regulations, 2024. The regulations, which are being spearheaded by the Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, are expected to take effect in the first quarter of next year.

During the release of the firm’s 2023-24 financial results, Kenya Power Managing Director Joseph Siror noted that as the main distributor of electricity, they are not against the injection of captive power into the grid.

Captive power is electricity generated by businesses or industries for their consumption. The new regulations will allow such entities to sell power to other users through the national grid.

However, Dr Siror said the issue with captive power is that it is intermittent and that the current infrastructure was never designed with such in mind.

A captive power plant, also known as an auto producer or embedded generation facility, generates electricity primarily for the use of the entity that owns it.

He noted that having captive power as part of the grid may mean electricity will be moving from opposite directions and not necessarily from the substations.

The unpredictability of captive power, which is largely sourced from solar, Dr Siror further noted, may damage the grid due to voltage fluctuations. “It is sometimes more destructive to the network than it is productive. If the captive source is solar, what that would mean is that at some point, it may be giving us a particular level and then possibly if the cloud cover comes, it drops. Then when the cloud clears, it injects a spike,” he explained.

Dr Siror said these spikes and dips can pose a danger to industries like glass manufacturing, which are quite sensitive to the quality of power.

“They can lose the entire production by virtue of a dip,” he said. “If the captive power producers are allowed to operate outside our network, there will be no issue so that whatever happens in the generation, its adverse impacts do not affect the rid.”

The MD, however, noted that captive power producers could be allowed to supply the grid between 6pm and 10pm, which are the high peak hours. He said during the day, the reserves are adequate.

“So if they could come to assist at that time (6pm to 10pm) it would be good, but they would have to be reliable so that we do not get spikes,” he said.

Dr Siror said one of the key parameters considered in the national control is that future power demand is projected hour by hour. “When you have that generation not within your visibility coming in, it causes serious disruption in that space. Not only does it disrupt the work of people doing dispatch but it also lowers the quality of that supply,” he said.